The current challenges in cities (economic, social and environmental) are often so complex that the necessary solutions require collaboration between public, private and civil actors. Research indicates that cross-sectorial collaboration is a complex and difficult discipline, where diverse goals, motivations, professional and cultural backgrounds often become a barrier, leading to inappropriate misunderstandings, that ultimately makes the partnership inefficient, costly and far from competitive.

My PhD project investigates how the use of multimodality (interplay between verbal, visual and material communication) can stimulate shared sensemaking among heterogeneous actors in urban transformative partnerships.